Godfire: The Split Soul Chapter 2: Goodbye Mom

At four years old, Kai still had the band on his head and had gotten used to it covering his eyes. he didn’t want his mother to be sad hearing what others thought of him or said behind him.

His blend of black and blue hair had grown long and stretched past his shoulder slightly. Without having any sharp object, he made it wiggle in the air. Unlike other children who had theirs cut, Kai’s own remained and kept growing, almost covering his face.

One day, when Kai returned ho after long hours of looking for food, he saw Arya lying on the edge of the bed. He saw the glow around her dimming and quickly ran to her. He tried to lift her, but with his small and weak body, it was difficult. But sohow, he managed to help her sit on the bed.

Everything got worse day after day. Dry cough consud Ayra every day. And her body showed sickly green lines all over her – from her face to her arms.

In the village, there was no doctor, the only one had vanished with Kai’s father years ago. With that, everyone in the village lived by the priestess guidance.

Even with Kai asking for help beside the priestess who tried her best to care for Ayra, no one helped.

After several days of care, the priestess gave up on Ayra, but kept visiting to check on her and Kai.

For days, Kai began stealing food from the village’s market, mainly for his mother, who could no longer get up from the bed. Just to keep her alive.

"Son, forgive . I won’t be able to protect you." Ayra cried while hugging him every night. Perhaps thinking he was asleep.

At all those monts, Kai clenched his fists tightly. Tears welled up in his covered eyes followed by a tiny red light seeping out of the band.

...

On Kai’s fifth birthday, Ayra’s condition worsened more than either Kai or the priestess could imagine. Though the priestess knew but had no idea it would be this quick.

Now, Ayra couldn’t even sit on the bed anymore, all she could do was lay on the bed while being fed by Kai.

Ayra looked at her son’s face with the band he never removed. her voice was weak today, and he felt it as he saw no sign of the glow around her. Kai saw his mother showing her gentle smile despite the extre pain she was feeling as he looked at her.

"Kai... take off the band." Ayra said stretching her hand toward Kai’s face.

Kai did, when his mother’s hand reached the band.

"As I thought... I know you hid those beautiful eyes because of ." Ayra’s voice sounded like a weak sigh as her eyes seed to be losing its light.

"Please.... Don’t hide them anymore. Your eyes... are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The one thing that I will forever rember."

That was it, she was gone. Her last words were so weak Kai couldn’t hear them. But understood by reading her lips. Before the light in his mother’s eyes turned off, he saw there was no pain or sorrow in her. Only the spark of happiness a mother can show to her beloved son.

Tears began to fall from Kai’s eyes as the moon’s ray fell on her still face.

The shadows he had been seeing since he was born began to circled him, placing sothing like a hand around his shoulder.

No one knows for how long. The room seed silent, lifeless, with the only sound of water dropping on the wooden floor.

After having no more tears to shed, Kai held his mother’s hand for the last. Just to feel sothing trapped in her palm.

He quickly grabbed it, it was a black key, that had that had the word ’K’ inscribed on it.

"A key...?"

As soon as Kai tore his gaze toward the tal drawer closer to the bed, he stared at the key, and tried the key inserted the key in the key hole.

When the drawer got opened, he saw a white sheet folded on top of a black box. And on the letter, he saw his na written boldly on it. KAI and quickly recognized that it was from his mother and imdiately focused.

He pulled the letter from the drawer and opened it with trembling fingers. He couldn’t fully accept that his mother had...

He read the letter slowly, his tears, which he thought had dried already began falling.

My son. You are special. I feel it. Your eyes are a gift, not a curse as other say. You’re not a monster also.

Don’t hide them. Live. Fight. Beco so strong that nothing can break you. Stronger so you don’t lose to anyone, not even to yourself. That’s what your father and I would want. So strong that no one can hurt you or get sothing from you freely.

Also, leave the village when you’re older. You’re a genius in absolutely everything you do or have done. The world is big... and I want you to know it, instead of staying in this small place, move around.

Have children, not one like I did. Understand? You are my pride and need to let our lineage spread more. I always wished for a country filled with my grandchildren.

And please, be happy. You are my love, my pride, and my all. The best gift ever given to . Sorry for not being able to stay with you a little longer.

You see the black box the letter was on, open it when you’re ready. When you gets to understand how the chanics of this world run. There are more for you to learn.

You’re not just a normal kid. Don’t belittle yourself. I love you.

...

After reading the letter, Kai beca extrely silent. His tears finally stopped falling. He looked at his mother’s face. a small smile appeared on his lips.

"I understand. Mom, don’t worry. I will definitely beco stronger. Stronger than you could ever imagine."

"I..."

"I definitely will. Live the best life I can for you. And you alone." Kai said with his still baby voice, showing signs of breaking.

The faint smile on his face faded as he wiped his tears and shifted his gaze to the black box in the drawer.

He locked the drawer and moved to the only place of their house that was strong enough to withstand any pressure. The fireplace.

He took off the band still handing around his neck and threw it into the fire, which imdiately started crackling as it turned to ashes.

Kai closed his eyes as the vapors of the fire reached him. mories of everyone that had rejected his mother and himself surged in his mind. And when he opened his eyes, he decided, he would never hide anything.

He crumbled the letter and threw it also into the fire. When it also turned to ashes, Kai stared at his still mother and walked out of the house.

A few minutes later, he returned with the priestess who saw Ayra dead and sighed with sorrow.

The priestess thought of saying sothing to Kai, but seeing the boy’s completely calm face, she kept her words to herself.

Kai turned and looked at the priestess. "I want to burry her by the mango tree behind the house. It was the place she sat the most."

Kai said calmly, but his breath faltered as he rembered his mother beneath the tree, chewing the mango, and calling him happily.

"Alright. I’ll bring a coffin and shovels. And so people to help dig her grave." The priestess said as she turned toward the exit, but Kai stopped her.

"NO, just bring the coffin and one shovel. I want to do this alone." Kai said clenching his fist.

"No one helped my mother while she was sick. Not even when she was well and strong."

With all that he saw while she was sick, he knew she couldn’t be helped. But even with that no one tried to help all this ti.

The priestess understood and went away. After several minutes she returned carrying a very simple wooden coffin. She opened the coffin and pulled out a shovel and handed it to Kai.

She tapped on the boy’s shoulder twice, sighed, and went back to the village.

Then, Kai began.

He started removing the leaves where at where he decided to dig. Afterward, he went inside the house, and to the section all the sharp tals were. He grabbed a pickaxe sealed in a brown box.

He rembered his mother’s voice as he drags it to the area he had cleared. ’Your father used it in the diamond mine on the mountain to help the village.’

The pickaxe was extrely heavy for Kai, but he didn’t care even after dragged him down for couple of tis. Reaching the area, he used all his effort as he began hitting the hard earth with his thin arms.

Gradually, the solid ground that looked like coated ground cracked enough for him to use the shovel.

At that mont, Kai’s heart felt like it would spring out of his mouth. His body trembled as drops of blood seeped from the cuts that appeared on them from using the pickaxe. But the pain and pain and blood didn’t matter.

He kept going until his heartbeat stopped. "No. I can’t let my body make stop. I have to keep going."

He scread placing the pickaxe down and leaned on it.

In his vision, the shadows he always saw in a violet color felt different. Now, under the moon’s gaze it seed like nothing could escape his sight. But still he had no idea what those shadows were. Since he opened his eyes, he instinctively brought all of them under his control.

And now Kai thought it’s because of that his split colored eyes gradually changed to one color. The shadows now refused to obey his commands.

"Will the people in the city know what these things are? Mom said the city was completely different from the village. I hope one day I could visit..."

"I need to finish digging and put mom to rest before morning cos."

Having decided, Kai stood up. Long hours passed slowly. The night was cold. Kai decided not to rest anymore because if he did, he doubted he’d have the strength to finish.

When a large hole appear beneath the mango tree, he fell to his knees completely exhausted, his hands bleeding heavily.

Kai’s vision began to darken when he tried to straighten himself. "No... I can’t faint... I CAN’T" he shouted. His voice echoed back at him.

As his breathing beca heavy, the shadows gathered and plunged into him at high speed. He got pushed back the mont all the shadows vanished in him. From his eyes and ears, he began to see people screaming and running around with tears.

Pain surged through his body when a face of those he’d seen in the village appeared in the vision he was seeing. And when the vision ended, the pain flowing through his body vanished.

Kai stood up easily while looking at his hands as he opened and closed them. He clenched them and shifted his gaze towards the canopy of the trees and sighed.

Strange vibration flowed through him when he picked up the shovel that had fallen on the ground easily. He saw bright light in the far distance, at where he thought would be the village’s central point.

Even at where he stood at the far distance he could see wing shadow being flying toward where the light was.

"This is not the ti to think about what I’m doing or what I should do," Kai realized it was already clear his body had changed and decided to enter the house.

Seeing his mother’s body lying there still, sadness arose in him again. He approached the body, knelt beside her and closed his eyes. After what felt like several minutes of silence, he stood up, placed one arm under her legs, and the other under her back.

Kai carried her body like a queen, with an extre care. And when he arrived behind the house, at where the hole had been dug, he slowly placed her in the wooden coffin.

He ran inside brought the brown pillow she always used and placed it under her head. He looked at her face and sighed for the last ti. Even after death, she still had her gentle smile. Her short blue hair spread across the coffin.

"Mom, I will rember you forever. When I have my children, I will raise them with the sa love and protection you gave . I you mom. More than anything. Though you wouldn’t be with physically, but I know you will be around spiritually. I hope one day, I can see you again..."

"Goodbye, Mom..." Kai held back his tears, not wanting to cry infront of his mother again, but his heart thrumd inside him heavily.

He closed the coffin, slowly placed it in the whole, and shoveled dirt over it. His arms moved quickly as the dried soul fell around the coffin.

The sll of earth and leaves entered his nose. And above the tree, three birds flopping their wings and singing. The only sound beside the shovel hitting the earth.

mories passed through his mind per every ti the soil hit the coffin.

Within an hour, Ayra’s coffin disappeared beneath the earth. Kai sighed as he watched the birds in the tree which stopped singing and flew away.

"I got a little stronger, Mom. Rest here for a while. When I’m stronger and ready, I will co for the black box you left in the drawer. I’ll burry the box with you. When I co, I will tell you everything."

He said before turning and going back inside.

Kai took the only bag his mother once used, placed three clothes, two unripe mangoes, and the scarf his mother never used.

He had no idea what would happen next, but still walked out of the house and set off toward the village – where he once saw fire light burning over it. The very one that had rejected both him and his mother.